Brits Brush Off 'Box

Joebob · 20 Jan 2006 at 16:41

I found this article in this weeks micromart.

MicroMart said:
"2005 was not a good year for the British arm of the Redmond clan it seems, what with all the bugs and fixes and now the revelation that their attempts to woo us with the Xbox failed with flying colours. In fact, the console turned out to be a bit of a lemon over here with only 389,000 being sold, including sales figures for the 360 in the short time it's been out. Of course, if you drop the 360 from the equation, they're in an even worse mess, having sold a paltry 129,000 boxes all told. The winners in this round, unsuprisingly, the Sony squadron who managed to shift a meaty 1.2 million PS2s and 795,000 PSPs over the course of the year. This round to Sony. Watch this space for updates."

I knew that the PS2 outsold the Xbox, but I was absolutely shocked that it was by soo much. Makes you wonder though - if there wasn't a company with Microsofts untold wealth behind the Xbox it would have died on it's arse in the UK a long time ago.

Sorry but everytime I re-read the above quote im still in shock :eek:

Joebob · 20 Jan 2006 at 16:50

teaboy5 said:
Dont know if i understand this? Are we talking about xbox 360's here or just plain xbox. Also is this just in 2005?

389,000 units including the 360 / 129,000 just Xbox. Yeah for the entire 2005. + those PSP figures are impressive when you consider it's only been out for about 6 months.

Joebob · 22 Jan 2006 at 13:42

Boogle said:
The PS2 may be doing well, but to say the Xbox isn't selling well is definitely incorrect. If it wasn't doing well it wouldn't have so much shelf space.

Hmm... good point but I remember the leader of the next gen console release last time around was the dreamcast and everyone said "ooh how is sony going to catch up in the market after Sega have such a head start". As I recall the dreamcast had loads of shelf space too.

Boogle said:
I'd be more interested in how many GAMES are being sold than consoles. This is where Nintendo score, they make a profit on the small number of consoles they sell, and each person buys far more games than your average PS2 owner. I'd hazard that the number of Xbox games sold isn't that much less than the number of PS2 games. Games show how popular a console is, not the number of consoles sold.

How the hell do you figure out that that the average Nintendo owner buys more games than any PS2 owner? There's more PS2's in the UK than Xbox's and GameCube's put together and for that reason there are far more titles available to buy for the PS2! I don't see your logic on that one. :confused:

Same point again about your comment on the number of Xbox games compared to PS2.

Joebob · 24 Jan 2006 at 12:32

Werewolf said:
In Japan and the U.S. I think the stats for the DS and PSP were something like DS owners having bought on average 2 or 3 games more than the PSP owners.

Doesn't that speak volumes about the longevity of the games out on Nintendo systems?

Joebob · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:44

XPE said:
mayby there the quality of the games are higher and therefor people are buying more of them ?

Yeah that could be it, but it's more likely that people get bored of them quicker!

Joebob · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:17

punky_munky said:
Well if that were true then the number of second hand DS games would be far greater than second hand PSP games. Going on what I've seen in shops that isn't the case.

Here are the lists from a well know Game's Etailer for the top selling games on both hand helds:

PSP
01, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
02, Pro Evolution Soccer 5
03, Need For Speed Most Wanted
04, Peter Jackson's King Kong
05, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
06, WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2006
07, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
08, Pursuit Force
09, FIFA 06
10, Crash Tag Team Racing

DS
01, Sonic Rush
02, Mario Kart DS
03, Nintendogs - Labrador
04, Nintendogs - Chihuahua
05, Nintendogs - Miniature Dachshund
06, Space Invaders Revolution
07, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
08, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
09, Advance Wars: Dual Strike
10, Spyro: Shadow Legacy

I think that this clearly illustrates that the target market for both are completely different. There is nothing in the DS top ten which appeals much to me because 80% of tiltes are aimed at kids.... then again, maybe you are a kid! I suppose you may have found your way onto this site if your parents dont monitor your internet usage.

Joebob · 25 Jan 2006 at 17:28

This thread has really turned into a DS vs PSP war hasn't it

nice!

My mate had a DS when it first came out and it very quickly went on fleabay. I had a go on it and I must admit that in my opinion it was pants - the duel screen touch screen thing is just gimmicky, it felt big and plasticky and the graphics and games were only of the quality of an N64 at best (obviously thats still better than any hand held competition at the time). I have always found Nintendos games to be very kiddy orientated, ever since I used to play Starfox on my SNES (the only nintendo I have ever owned) - I just dont really like playing games with cartoon style characters.!!!

I suppose that in the end it's each to his own though - so good luck all you DS owners, enjoy your games as I certainly will enjoy playing single player games, playing multi player games, game sharing (now theres a feature no one has mentioned yet), watching movies, browsing the net, and listening to music on my PSP

Joebob · 25 Jan 2006 at 18:17

Moonpie2 said:
But its really long.... do I have to ??

Ok, I'll accept that I may not be 100% right all the time in a gracious manner.

But lets take Wi-fi out of the equasion for a moment then since PSP and DS both do it well.
Now what you're left with is a lot of cheap PS2 knockoffs on the PSP and you still have unique games on the DS (admittedly, not everyone likes the fun quirky Jap titles I'm so fond of)

But cheap PS2 knockoffs is exactly what I wanted. I traded my beloved PS2 in for my PSP because I never got chance to play it - my only other solution would have been to buy about a dozen or so TV's and place them around the house and at work (including toilets) so that I could carry my slimline PS2 around with me.

+ All the games which I love on the PS2 are out on the PSP and they are damn good conversions too.

Joebob · 26 Jan 2006 at 18:13

Weebull said:
I think that's all the problem really. Most people have that impression of Nintendo games, and I think it's more to do with people's preconcieved ideas than it is any real truth. In Japan, cartoons are seen as a legitimate form of entertainment/art, rather than simply a tool for childrens programming that they are considered over here, and the same applies to the games. So people over here see a game with cartoony graphics, and just brand it with the "kiddy" stigma, instead of really giving it a try.

Personally, I'd rather rate a game on how it plays rather than how it looks. Sure, Mario (any of them) might have kiddy graphics, but I like plaformers, and the Mario series are excellent platformers, so I'm going to play them regardless.

A lot of people seem to think that they've matured because they no longer play games with cartoony graphics, but personally, I'd say you mature more when you learn to look beyond the graphics completely and appreciate the game itself.

Not aimed completely at you by the way, as you admit yourself to liking Nintendo games, it's just a point I wanted to make.

I see your point but my views are not just plucked out of the air. My son has had a gameboy, gamboy colour, Game advanced and then a gameboy advanced flip thingy. I tried playing many of his games but never got on with them. Probably because I don't like platform games - I just think platformers are just sooo 1980's and we have moved beyond that now.

Joebob · 27 Jan 2006 at 13:49

daz said:
I'm not sure what your point is... you do come across as a fanboy, but it's strange because your profile says your 33! Anyway, on the one hand you want new games and new experiences, but on the other you play you want to play your old PS2 games on your PSP.

Like you said, each to their own!

I am a fanboy and will openly admit it - I love SONY.

What's wrong with being a fanboy at 33? We didn't get chance to argue about wether the Spectrum was better than the Commodore 64 anywhere other than the dinner queue whilst I was at school so I am making the most of the technology available now.

Obviously back then I was a Commodore Fanboy.

Joebob · 27 Jan 2006 at 18:12

Moonpie2 said:
Are you mental ??
Spectrum RULEZ 4EVA !!

D'oh! Not that old argument again... I suppose you were in the "the spectrum is better because there are slightly more games out for it" camp - even though it had half the mem of the C64 and didn't have full colour!

Man, I feel like i'm back at school